>>5565314
>>5565330
Again, a disclaimer: I might be wrong, but …
There is more available detail in a few areas than present after extended watch of a few sites that I let trash purpose built systems (sacrificial systems, so to speak):
First, that any PC Compatible system can be attacked (including Macs that are actually PC Compatible since they switched from the Motorola Platform to being Intel based.); Intel or AMD systems included.
Second: The operating system (OS) doesn't matter. This malware installs, loads and runs it's own PC based (OS) AND file system. This has been evaluated on Linux (Debian, Ubuntu and TENS), UNIX (FreeBSD, HBSD), Windows (95, 7 and 10), MS-DOS (3.31, 6.22), Mac (10.11.6 and 10.14.4). It functions equally well on all those PC Compatible OS platforms.
Third: The malware pretty much disappears on shut down. And the native OS can't see it while the machine is running. You have to boot the machine from an external USB stick, then run your disk utility software from the external disk. Or connect the drive in question to the computer via an external drive adapter after the system finishes booting up. Then run your drive utilities. Only then you can see a tiny partition on the drive; but so far not the contents. Additionally, it appears to reinstall itself on each boot. Then go away again on shutdown.
Forth: It carries it's own VPN and encryption. When I block all SOCKS traffic (in and out) in my firewall AND edge-router the VPN transport stops; though I am still digging through that layer at this time.
Per Edward Snowden's speech at SXSW. “Edward Snowden and ACLU at SXSW”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPrDqoaHHSY
Personal Note: For me, Snowden's appearance – with the ACLU – at SXSW was the breakpoint for me to accept the plain fact that Snowden is a total black hat. And a serious danger to our country.
[I paraphrase] 'If enough systems run encryption (including VPNs and Disk encryption) the scale of economy will out pace any three lettered agency's budget. Thus making it impractical to operate in that manner. '
True. Snowden was talking people into encrypting everything. But he never included the C_A in any talk or in any way suggesting the the clowns were a problem too; notwithstanding the fact that they are the real problem group.
Yes, the NSA can decrypt anything they want. But not against an infinite amount of encrypted traffic. This is why the NSA, China and others went to a system hardware solution for spying (note: “Spy Chips”). This via “Application Specific Integrated Circuits” (ASIC) or “Processor Included Hardware Solutions” (such as the NSA does currently). Because all that operates before and below all software layers. And thus, pre-encryption.
With that, these malware systems are running their fetched data through C_A owned and operated networks.
Fifth: This malware system is very persistent. Even after deleting all partitions and high level formatting of the affected drives, multiple times, this malware system will persist. As stated before, only a “low level sectorial formatting” (LLSF) will remove this from a magnetic drive and only manufacturer's service centers can effectively clear a SSD of this malware system.
So having high follower counts could result in your severs being compromised, then exploited to thusly attack your following, identifies a high follower count a real risk.